LEWISBURG — Ryan Owens stood on the edge of the deck Friday night, fixing his hair and scrambling to pull on his warmup pants and baby blue jacket before his medal ceremony.

Just one year ago, Owens could have never imagined that he’d be here — walking toward the medal podium at the PIAA Swimming and Diving Championships.

His personalized “Daniel Boone Basketball” jacket only served to prove that point.

“It was a really humbling experience,” said the lanky Daniel Boone sophomore, proudly wearing his eighth-place medal from the Class AAA 200-yard freestyle Friday night at Kinney Natatorium. “I went out just like I wanted to. My first 100 split was right where I wanted it to be. I got a little tired after that, but I still swam really well.”

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Owens was the only area medalist on Friday at Bucknell, while the PAC-10 was well represented in the consolation finals.

On the girls side, Methacton’s 200 medley relay team of Sarah Furtek, Nicole Young, Corrine Blodgett and Kirsten Groff finished 13th with a time of 1:49.29, nearly a second faster than their preliminary time of 1:50.11.

In the 200 free relay, the Warriors were 14th, as the senior Young and sophomore Groff were joined by freshman Jen Rees and sophomore Kristen Wang to swim a school record time of 1:38.33.

As for Owens, he seemed slightly awestruck as he stood beside the podium for his well-deserved photo op.

Despite swimming regularly since the age of 7, Owens decided to play basketball as a freshman for the Blazers. But just as he was trying to juggle basketball for Boone and his time with Linda Jones at the Boyertown YMCA, Owens came down with a nasty case of pneumonia.

It basically ended his basketball season — he appeared in one varsity game for Boone — and cost him nearly all of swim season.

“Last year, he tells me, ‘My goal is to make varsity on the basketball team,’” said Jones, who was on deck cheering on Owens, as well as her swimmers for Boyertown, where she’s the head coach. “So I said, ‘You’d rather make varsity in basketball than make states in swimming?’ I absolutely thought this was realistic for him. He’s very young and very talented.”

Owens has the height to play basketball, but he still has that look of a high school sophomore. That’s something he hopes to change in the weight room — and a major reason he might be higher on that podium next year.

“The thing I can improve on most is probably my weight training,” Owens said. “So next year I’m definitely coming back strong. This was validation for me that I made the right choice, and I can only get better.”

After the first 100 yards Friday night, Owens was within shouting distance of the rest of the field. But in the final few laps, the leaders pulled away, with Upper Dublin’s duo of Robert Bantley (1:37.12) and Eric Jensen (1:38.93) winning gold and silver, respectively.

“I was just really happy making the “A” final,” Owens said. “I trust a lot in my training, I work hard in practice, and these guys really push me to get better.”

“These guys,” are many of the Boyertown swimmers who were cheering for Owens Friday night. The Bears and Blazers may be next-door neighbors and rivals in other sports, but for Owens, he’s an adopted Bear, despite wearing baby blue instead of black and red.

“I have my Boyertown Y swimming teammates and they’re always there, we’re all there for each other,” Owens said. “So, really, it’s just like having a team.”

Owens swam this season in Pottsgrove meets and at a handful of invitationals in order to record his qualifying times. Still, not many people knew his name until the 10th-seeded Owens came out of nowhere to win the District 3 title in the 200 free.

Owens will swim today in the 500 free, where he is seeded 13th.

“He’s still very small and he can definitely go a long way,” Jones said. “Right now, the 200 and 500 are his best, and his 100 is also very good. He can definitely get even better.”

Hopefully someone can get him a “Daniel Boone Swimming” jacket, too.

On the other side of the pool, OJR’s Feiser was all smiles, despite coming in as the fourth seed in the 50 freestyle and finishing ninth. A trip to Bucknell was all gravy for the Wildcat junior.

“I was really focusing on the district meet to get here,” said Feiser of the District 1 meet, in which he surprisingly won the 50 free. “I was happy with my swims. I guess I could’ve swam faster, and that last relay (the 200 free relay) we probably would’ve gotten a school record if I hit my turn right.

“But it was really great to be here,” Feiser said of his first trip to states. “It’s definitely a whole new level of competition.”

On the girls side, Methacton coach Ben Yoder was thrilled with the performance of his relay teams.

“We had some high expectations coming in and we definitely fulfilled those and more,” Yoder said. “We had a goal of making it back at night in both events and we did that.”

Yoder was especially happy for his seniors, Young and Blodgett, who got to go out on a high after they were somewhat disappointed with their swims at the districts.

Young has one more swim today in the 100 breaststroke (seeded 25th), while Groff will swim the 100 free (27th).

“Nicole, she’s been with us for four years and I can’t say enough about what she’s done and what she’s accomplished,” Yoder said. “Just to watch her evolve over the years, she was a leader as a ninth grader and is definitely a leader now. She’s just one of those athletes you could always count on.

“Corrinne I only had for two years, but she brought a ton to our team and in these two short years I’ve really grown to care about Corinne. I wish her luck in the future and hope she doesn’t forget about us.”

NOTES

A handful of PAC-10 swimmers didn’t make it back for the night session on Friday. Boyertown’s Steve Miller finished 25th in the 200 free (1:45.89), Perk Valley’s Amdor was 25th in the 200 IM (1:59.05), and in the 50 free, Methacton’s Rich Weber was 22nd (21.73) and Perk Valley’s Kyle Dix was 32nd (22.53). … Just one state record went down Friday night, as Upper Dublin’s 200 medley relay swam a 1:31.28, breaking a 2-year-old La Salle mark. Ironically, the Explorers finished second (1:31.51), also ahead of the old record time. … La Salle leads the AAA boys team standings after Day 1 with 163 points. Hershey is second (130) and Upper Dublin third (98). Owen J. Roberts is the highest local team in 16th (21). … On the girls side, Hershey leads with 169 points. North Allegheny is second (97) and North Penn third (84).